Writing 101
Fall 2016
Course Descriptions
WRITING 101.01-101.13
Topic: PODCASTS & PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
Instructor: Denise Comer
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM & MW 11:45AM-1:00PM
From Serial and Nerdist to Planet Money and Freakanomics Radio, podcasts reach millions of people. With
roots in radio broadcasts from the 1930s, podcasts have emerged as one of the most unanticipated forms
of digital media in the twenty-first century.
What are the historical antecedents of podcasts? How do podcasts intersect with, extend, and challenge
other modes of communication? What rhetorical features of podcasts make them more or less effective
or influential? In what ways do podcasts intersect with academic inquiry?
Over the semester, we will read and write about a variety of podcasts and critical theories that raise
questions about podcasts and, more broadly, digital rhetoric. Shorter writing projects will ask you to write
and respond to theoretical texts about digital rhetoric, oral communication, and podcasts. The course
includes four main writing projects: a close reading of a podcast (750 words), a synthesis essay, in which
you apply a theoretical text to a podcast (1000-1250 words), a research project, developed and revised
over stages with a proposal and annotated bibliography, which will offer you the opportunity to extend
your thinking and writing on podcasts by focusing on a particular area of interest, such as gender and
podcasts, culture and podcasts, crime podcasts, sports podcasts, etc. (2000-2500 words); and a podcast
of your own, developed and revised over stages across the semester. Since this course relies on a
workshop format, students will read, listen, and respond to one another’s work throughout the semester.
WRITING 101.02
Topic: MUSIC AS MEDICINE?
Instructor: Cary A Moskovitz
TuTh 11:45AM-1:00PM
Music is clearly an integral part of human culture. But can it also serve medical functions? Recent research
suggests that music therapy may indeed have medical benefits for a broad range of applications--from
reducing pain in patients undergoing bone marrow biopsies, burn dressing changes, and lumbar punctures
to improving cognitive function in elderly people suffering from dementia. But just how compelling is this
research. What benefits have actually been scientifically documented?
In this Writing 101 course, we will examine the scientific evidence for these questions and others related
to music therapy in the medical realm. This course will begin with an emphasis on research skills focusing
on how to locate the most relevant and useful sources. Then, using select principles of health science
research and statistical data analysis, students will practice careful, skeptical reading as they draft and
revise reviews of experimental research reports on medical music therapy. Finally, building on their own
work and that of their classmates from the first half of the term, students will write scholarly scientific
essays discussing some aspect of the current science of music therapy and its implications for clinical
practice in relation to specific diseases or medical contexts. Audiences for student writing will include both
classmates and health-science professionals. Students will have the opportunity to participate in the Duke
Reader Project (dukereaderprojet.org); those who elect to participate will be matched with a Duke alum
or employee in a health science field who will provide feedback on drafts of a major writing assignment.
Note: this course involves a considerable amount of collaborative work; students should have schedules
and attitudes that will allow them to work extensively with classmates outside of class time. Prior
coursework in statistics is useful but not required.
WRITING 101.03-101.17
Topic: THE CRAFT OF ETHNOGRAPHY
Instructor: Marcia Rego
TuTh 1:25PM-2:40PM & MW 3:05PM - 4:20PM
The Craft of Ethnography: Observing and Describing the World Around Us
More widely known as the immersive approach anthropologists use to study to the lives of others, the
ethnographic method is increasingly being employed in other disciplines to produce knowledge about the
social world. This course focuses on ethnographic writing, both as a research method and as a literary
genre. As we engage in our own immersive research, we will read and write about groundbreaking
ethnographies from different periods, and interrogate their rhetorical strategies: How do their authors
use description to make arguments? How is what they say shaped by how they say it? How do their
narrative styles position them theoretically and politically in relation to the communities they study? To
help us in this exploration, we will also read and respond to key theoretical works about the genre and its
place in the social sciences.
As we examine the moral, political, and ethical issues in representing the “other,” you will work towards
writing mini-ethnographies of your own. You will choose a social phenomenon in Durham, or at Duke, to
study, and will experience firsthand the joys and challenges of being an ethnographer. Short (2 to 3 pages)
weekly assignments will help you hone your observation and interviewing skills, practice taking field notes,
and experiment with writing approaches you will have examined throughout the semester. Your work
will culminate in a polished 6-8 page mini-ethnography that will go through several drafts. Through
supportive writer’s workshops and ample opportunity to reflect on works-in-progress, you will learn to
both critique the work of others and to revise your own. These are valuable skills that, along with those
of careful observation, compelling description, and critical analysis, will serve you well in all kinds of
writing projects, at Duke and beyond.
* This course requires that you spend time observing and/or interacting with others outside of class.
Writing 101.04-101. 57
Topic: DISABILITY AND REPRESENTATION
Instructor: Marion Quirici
TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM & TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Representation is a cornerstone of modern democracy. Traditionally, however, representation and rights
have been reserved for citizens who meet particular standards of fitness and ability. American values of
self-reliance and competition enable a narrative in which the “haves” are somehow more deserving than
the “have nots.” This course considers the consequences of these ideals, especially for disabled people,
who are arguably the world’s largest minority. We will discuss all forms of “representation”—within the
legal and public sphere, as well as in the world of culture, arts and entertainment, work, the marketplace,
and the physical environment. During the present election cycle, propaganda founded on fears of
disability continues to have an appeal, as the success of Donald Trump’s book Crippled America (2015)
attests. How do we define strength and weakness in our national culture? How do these values impede
our professed commitment to equality and civil rights? By considering the perspectives of the more
vulnerable members of society, we will expand our understanding of “diversity.” The skills and ideas you
learn in this class will make you stand out in your discipline, whether you’re interested in the health
sciences, law, politics and government, the social and behavioral sciences, education, architecture and
engineering, business, or the arts and humanities.
To achieve these goals, we will work with an assortment of texts, including representations of disability in
television, films, commercials, short stories, and personal narratives, as well as critical essays by disabled
activists. Our exploration of online disability counterculture—and our reading of op-eds, articles, and
essays addressing disability rights—will prepare you to write blog posts for a general, online audience.
You will write five short blog entries in response to specific prompts provided by the instructor. For your
first formal writing assignment, you will choose a representation of disability from literature, film,
television, advertising, or the media, and write a critical textual analysis (five pages). Our class discussions
of a variety of subjects, from civil rights and legislation to medical ethics, sports, education, and the
constructed environment (buildings, transportation, public space, and technology) will help you define
your topic for the researched essay (ten pages). We will devote class time in the final weeks of the
semester to drafting, workshopping, and revising your writing. You will work toward the final assignment
with an annotated bibliography that summarizes your reading on the topic, an abstract that clarifies your
argument, and a short class presentation. The course will train you to express yourself clearly, support
your ideas effectively, and to raise social consciousness.
Writing 101.05-101.06-101.38
Topic: STRANGER THAN FICTION
Instructor: Kevin Casey
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM, TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM, TuTh 11:45AM - 1:00PM
We categorize our favorite stories: this is realism, that's fantasy, this is romance, that's a vampire-themed
fantasy romance, this is a crime thriller,that is Literature. This kind of genre classification becomes
especially fragmented in the broad realm of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, post-apocalyptic,
dystopian, horror -- and that's just a quick gloss of major categories, each of which also have all manner
of subgenres and hybrids. Yet some of these apparently unrealistic stories touch very current nerves:
violence, disaster, government oppression, racism, gender inequity, and other issues real people live with
or witness every day.
We're going to investigate fiction that unsettles our realities or otherwise challenges the safe haven that
"it's just make-believe." We'll focus on stories that rely on speculative genre conventions to engage
significant contemporary issues but that simultaneously defy easy categorization in a specific genre. Our
reading will include the novels The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), The Intuitionist (Colson
Whitehead), and The Road (Cormac McCarthy). These books form the foundation of our conversation and
writing about speculative fiction and its intersection with our real worlds. Writing will include a close
reading (~5 pages), a research proposal (~1-2 pages), a source annotation (~1-2 pages), a research paper
(~10 pages), and several contributions to a digital project (~500+ words each).
Writing 101.07-101.31
Topic: LIT-AGE OF MASS REPRODUCTION
Instructor: Lisa Chinn
TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM & TuTh 4:40PM - 5:55PM
Literature in the Age of Mass Reproduction: Technologies of Disseminating Twentieth-Century Writing
How have the phonograph, the radio, the mp3 file, and streaming services like Spotify or Apple music
changed the way we read? This class will examine the relationship between the spoken and written word
in their historical context to understand how mass reproduction has influenced twentieth–century
writing. Do authors change how they write because their words can now be recorded? What sort of
tension arises when writers discuss their relationships to recorded readings? Do we need written
literature when digital bytes can act as an archive?
This class will delve into Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, using
sound recordings from various collections alongside manuscripts found in a particular collection. We will
also use tools from the “Provoke! Digital Sound Studies” website soundboxproject.com to translate analog
sounds into a digital medium in order to understand how literature has been and continues to be affected
by technological innovation. Specifically, we will engage questions about the historical, cultural, and social
alignment of technology and literature from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present.
Course readings will include works by writers who address the influence of technological reproduction on
(or in) their work, including Ralph Ellison, T.S. Eliot, and Mina Loy. Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in
the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (1936) will act as a theoretical framework for writing assignments.
You will also read selections from Mark Katz’s Capturing Sound (2010) for a contemporary take on
“mechanical reproduction.”
Major writing assignments include: 1) a 1250-word comparative essay in which you compare an archival
manuscript with a corresponding “published version” of this manuscript by one of the writers we read in
class; 2) a 1500-word paper discussing a single photograph or sound recording in the digitized collection
from the Archive of Documentary Arts or Duke’s Radio State WDBS collection. You will trace the history
of the photograph or sound recording, using Katz or Benjamin to examine the tensions between practical
and theoretical implications of reproduction and preservation; and 3) a final curatorial research project
that uses a mix of sound, visual, object-oriented archival material which you will digitize for an online
exhibit space using Omeka. I create weekly writing assignments that include peer-review, revision, and
feedback for each major writing project to help you become a stronger writer. In addition to major writing
assignments, you will use VoiceThread, a cloud-based, voice-recording software (in lieu of traditional blogs
posts) in response to weekly readings.
Writing 101.08-101.09
Topic: WOMEN'S PRISON WRITING
Instructor: Jennifer Ansley
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM & TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM
Women's Prison Writing
In the 21st century, women—women of color and transgender women, in particular—represent the
fastest growing segment of the U.S. prison population. More often than not, they are incarcerated for
nonviolent crimes, and are themselves victims of violence, both prior to and during their time in prison.
Despite these circumstances, and despite the fact that writing by incarcerated women has played a key
role in U.S. prison reform and prison abolition movements since the 19th century, the experiences of and
writing by women in prison have garnered little attention among scholars.
This course asks: How does writing by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women complicate
scholarly and popular accounts of mass incarceration, in general, and women’s experiences of
incarceration, in particular? What possibilities for social change are imagined and enacted through these
authors’ work? How do the conditions of incarceration shape writing as a political practice?
In this course, your will write three essays: a brief analysis of a particular piece of women’s prison writing;
a slightly longer essay that builds on the first by locating a particular piece of writing in its historical,
cultural, and political context; and an 8-10 page research paper that engages with one of several
collections of lesser-known prison writing housed at the Rubenstein Rare Books & Manuscripts Library.
For a brief overview of these collections, please visit: bit.ly/1OLdJmq
Writing 101.10-101.11
Topic: ADDICTION AND COG ENHANCEMENT
Instructor Jesse Summers
MW 11:45AM - 1:00PM & MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM
When does a coffee habit become an addiction rather than a way of staying alert and focused? What
about an Adderall habit? Cocaine? Painkillers? Alcohol? Many drugs of abuse are used initially because of
their good effects despite some bad effects, so what makes some such use addiction while other use is
self-medication, even enhancement? Is there a difference? We will consider these questions, which are
biological, psychological, and philosophical, and apply them to the case of cognitive enhancement, asking
whether forms of cognitive enhancement are objectionable or, at the other extreme, should even be
required.
We will read from various disciplines in order to understand these topics, and we will organize our
thoughts using the argumentative tools of philosophy. We will also write a lot in this class: free writing,
summaries, structured notes, outlines, responses, and many drafts. These writing assignments will build
on each other to help us develop and articulate positions and arguments clearly. A first project will be a
short (5 page) reflective essay on enhancement. A second project (15 pages) will develop an argument on
a topic related to the course, incorporating relevant research as appropriate, through drafts and peer
feedback.
Writing 101.12-101.46-101.75
Topic: COMING OF AGE AT DUKE
Instructor: Sheryl Welte
WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM, WF 10:05AM - 11:20AM, WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM
During your time at Duke, many professors will tell you that they want to hear “your voice” in your papers
and in class discussions. But what is your voice? And where does it come from? When you speak, are
the words, the ideas, yours? The notion of voice is central to the concepts of students’ ways of knowing,
learning, and academic writing. We will use the field of educational psychology, which studies how people
learn in educational settings, to enhance our understanding of the development of self and voice which
takes place during the college years. Our writing will focus on revealing students’ beliefs about the role
of the instructor, the learner, the subject matter, peers, and evaluation, as well as gender and cultural
influences on their learning, ways of knowing, and development.
By using a variety of texts, videos, observations and interviews about college student learning and
knowing, we will engage with the work of others, learn to articulate a position, and situate our writing
within specific contexts. To begin, we will examine and apply existing theories of college students’ ways
of knowing and learning by writing descriptively and analytically. The final project will be an in-depth
exploration, in the form of a case study, of your own learning, ways of knowing, and/or issue significant
to your coming of age. The topic, and the related additional readings, will be carefully chosen by you so
that each case study will be personally meaningful. Throughout the course, we will write self and peer
evaluations of our academic writing, and thus collaboratively strengthen our ability to improve our works
in progress.
Writing 101.15-101.16-101.17
Topic: NEANDERTHAL TALES
Instructor: Adam Boyette
WF 8:30AM - 9:45AM, WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM, WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Neanderthal Tales: Paleoanthropology and What it Means to Be Human
The Neanderthals were people who lived in the freezing cold glacial environment of Europe and the
Middle East during the last ice age. They lived in caves and spear-hunted large game at close range.
Physically, they must have looked much stockier and heavier built than an average member of our species.
They also had a heavy brow and no chin. These features have led the Neanderthals to be thought of as
the example of brutish, primitive people, yet they have a larger brain than we do and survived in an
extraordinarily challenging environment for over 300,000 years—one-hundred millennia longer than our
species has been on Earth. What’s more, we now know that some populations of contemporary humans
carry Neanderthal DNA suggesting a profound and complex historical relationship between early Homo
sapiens and their cold-adapted contemporaries.
While unknowns abound, our increasing knowledge of these and other past peoples constantly calls us to
ask: What does it mean to be human? In this course, we explore this question—one central to much
scientific and humanistic inquiry—through the lens of paleoanthropology, a field that searches deep into
the past to understand how we came to be who we are today. Through reading academic and popular
texts, students learn about how different types of evidence—bones, stone tools, and genes—are used to
reconstruct key steps in the evolution of Homo sapiens and distinguish our relationship to other groups,
such as the Australopithecines and the Neanderthals. Rather than a focus on the technical study of this
evidence, students interrogate in their writing how it is applied to build different, sometimes mutually
exclusive, arguments. We also critically analyze in our writing the implications of fossil and genetic
evidence for our understanding of contemporary human diversity in light of past controversies in the field.
The course is oriented around the study of three features of our species, each of which has a long and rich
history of academic and popular discussion: large brains; a long childhood supported by multiple
caretakers; and complex culture. Students will work in teams much of the semester to write two major
papers—a scholarly research report and a popular science article—as well as shorter assignments
designed to practice specific writerly skills and practices.
Writing 101.19
Topic: POWER OF THE DISNEY PRINCESS
Instructor: Lisa Andres
MW 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Decoding Disney: The Pervasive & Problematic Power of the Princess”
**NB: Prior knowledge of Disney films and/or the theme parks is not required for this course. However,
an interest in Disney -- and specifically Disney princesses -- is absolutely a requirement.
This semester, we will be looking specifically at gender in Disney films -- particularly the Disney Princess
franchise and its contribution to "princess culture" -- and how it reflects and impacts socially constructed
gender roles. As one of the most influential media companies in the world — and perhaps the most
influential when it comes to children — the Disney company (and its films) are often held to a higher
standard, as if they have greater accountability. Indeed, as noted Disney critic Henry Giroux argues,
“It became clear to me that the relevance of such films exceeded the boundaries of entertainment.
Needless to say, the significance of animated films operates on many registers, but one of the most
persuasive is the role they play as the new “teaching machines.”
If we accept, as Giroux urges us to, that Disney films are “teaching machines," it seems logical to next ask,
“what, exactly, are they teaching us?” What is interesting is that so many -- in the general public and in
academia alike — are willing to view Disney as the corporate monster responsible for perpetuating
outdated patriarchal values. Disney, to them, is the reason why boys don't cry and girls don't pursue STEM
careers. This course seeks to explore the veracity of those accusations: are princesses really that bad? Is
our obsession with them, as Peggy Orenstein muses, “a sign of progress?” Or are they truly leading us
down a deluded path as we chase the illusory “happily ever after”?
**Please note: in order to be successful in this section of WR101, students are expected to:
(1) complete all writing assignments on time;
(2) actually watch Disney films (and not just work from memory!);
(3) complete all assigned readings and form opinions/responses to them; and finally
(4) actively participate in class discussion. This class works best when students freely and respectfully
exchange ideas.
--Questions for discussion might include: How does Disney define femininity? How does Disney define
masculinity? What impact have Disney films had on gender stereotypes? How does Disney (and the
princess franchise -- both heroes and heroines, as well as villains) affect the conversation on what it means
to be a "woman"? On what it means to be a "man"?
--Possible films might include: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid,
Pocahontas, Mulan, Hercules, The Princess and the Frog, and Frozen.
Ultimately, our readings will inform us about the elements of academic writing and argumentation and
will serve as entry points into the academic conversation. Over the course of the semester, students will
engage in a variety of writing assignments. In addition to weekly blog posts, students will be asked to
complete: (1) an analysis of a Disney film of your choice (no outside research); (2) a summary of and
response to a scholarly article about your Disney film; (3) a larger, research-oriented paper accompanied
by an annotated bibliography. This final essay will allow students to come to terms with an issue of their
choice, develop their own opinion/stance on that issue, and reflect on and respond to other critics and
authors. Finally, in lieu of a final exam, students will complete a multi-media final presentation. We will
not only practice conducting academic research, but we will also practice assessing, organizing and
integrating that research into a coherent, unified, final project.
Writing 101.20-101.21
Topic: COMPOSING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
Instructor: Sachelle Ford
WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM & WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Archives and Affects: Composing the African Diaspora
Innovations in African diaspora studies offer new methods for us to examine how writing has been a
crucial tool in composing the diaspora. An archival approach reconceptualizes diaspora as the circulation
of ideas rather than a historical condition. Whereas, the work of literary writers and critics prompts us to
investigate the affects and emotional states that situate being in diaspora as a feeling of belonging to a
global community. In this section of Writing 101 we will use informal writing assignments and two major
project sequences to explore how archives and affects make the African diaspora legible.
Our inquiry begins in the archive. By engaging Brent Hayes Edwards’ influential The Practice of Diaspora
(2003) among other texts, we will study models of cultivating and excavating the black diaspora archive.
Following their lead, you will work on the first major project sequence, the first part of which will give you
the opportunity to examine a document from Duke’s special collection holdings. Then, as a member of a
small group, you will assemble an archive of print culture by putting old texts into conversation to ask new
questions. Your group will work together to design an effective way to present your findings to the class.
Writing 101.22-101.23-101.71
Topic: CAN CHIMPS HAVE CULTURE?
Instructor: Lindsey Smith
WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM, WF 1:25PM - 2:40PM, WF 4:40PM - 5:55PM
“We can approximate what culture is by saying it is that which the human species has and other species
lack.” ~ Alfred Kroeber, American cultural anthropologist, 1923
When Jane Goodall caught the first glimpse of a chimpanzee delicately stripping leaves off of a thin
branch, dipping the branch into a termite mound, then nibbling off the dangling termites, she witnessed
the first evidence of tool use in animals. Goodall’s discovery was monumental because, until that moment,
tool use was considered a uniquely human trait. Upon hearing about this event, her mentor, Louis Leakey,
declared “We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!”
In this course, we will explore whether culture is, by definition, a human construct or if it can be
extended to include other animals like chimpanzees. Throughout the course, writing will be our primary
means of processing information and exploring ideas, and seminar discussions and peer feedback
workshops will strengthen critical reading, scientific writing, and communication skills. Our course
materials will come from scientific journals and books, popular magazines, videos, documentary films, and
podcasts. Writing projects in the first half of the semester will consist of two short papers that will enable
you to assess the challenges associated with studying animal behavior and explore how cultural traditions
are learned and maintained. In the second half of the semester, you will collaboratively write a proposal
for a study that investigates an aspect of culture in an animal of your choice then share your work with
the class in a short presentation.
Writing 101.24-101.25-101.26
Topic: DEBT, RACE, AND POWER
Instructor: Brenda Baletti
MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM, MW 4:40PM - 5:55PM, MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM
This class will examine some of the ways that contemporary capitalism reproduces and extends racialized
inequality. To do this, we will examine one of the central elements of capitalism and inequality today –
debt. We will ask questions such as: what are the different kinds of debt that exist and how did debt
become so ubiquitous? Who are debtors and who are creditors in today’s economy? Why are some people
held accountable or even jailed for their debts and others deemed “too big to fail”? Can the amount of
credit available grow indefinitely? What happens if it can’t? In the first half of the class, we will explore
the historically uneven social-geographical effects of capitalism with a focus on moments of
financialization. In the second half of the class we will engage in extensive research projects into selected
case studies including the subprime mortgage crisis, gentrification, student loan debt, and debt and
austerity in places like Detroit and Puerto Rico in order to understand the dynamics of debt, race, and
power at work in the contemporary US.
We will focus on developing skills in research-based writing in the qualitative social science. Our tasks will
include learning how to read, understand, and respond to course materials, identify and structure
arguments and analysis, and to carry out independent research projects. Assignments will include writing
exercises directed toward learning how to explicate texts through writing. Writing Project #1 will be a
response essay that will synthesize and respond to course readings. For Writing Project #2, students will
work in small groups to write extensive research papers on one of the “case studies” mentioned above.
Both of these projects will be due in phases (proposal, annotated bibliography, drafts), workshopped with
instructor and peers, and presented to the class.
Writing 101.27-101.28-101.29
Topic: BUILDING BACK BETTER
Instructor: Vincent Joos
TuTh 11:45AM - 1:00PM, TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM, TuTh 4:40PM - 5:55PM
"Building Back Better": Earthquakes, International Aid and the Anthropology of Reconstruction
A month after the 2010 earthquake that took the lives of more than 200.000 people in Haiti, former
President and U.N. envoy Bill Clinton proposed a reconstruction plan named “Building Back Better”. This
project, a revised copy of the 2004 “Building Back Better” reconstruction plan designed after the 2004
tsunami in South Asia, proposes to better the economic situation of Haiti through industrialization and
international aid. This plan was forcefully critiqued by Haitian politicians and NGO leaders because it
excludes Haitians from the reconstruction process and doesn’t address Haiti’s main problem: the lack of
housing. In this course, we will take Haiti as our main example to ask questions about disaster and
reconstruction. How social and political factors shape “natural” disasters? Are there universal solutions to
rebuild infrastructure and economy in post-disaster moments? How local cultural norms may guide our
approach to earthquake relief? We will attempt to answer these questions by internationally comparing
cases and by working in a broad timeframe. Using the disciplines of anthropology, seismology and
development studies, we will write projects that analyze earthquakes and post-disaster periods with a
special focus on reconstruction projects that yielded positive outcomes.
The course is divided in sections built around specific writing projects that will help us to develop research
and assessment skills. The class comprises three complementary building blocks. In Section 1 we will use
Google MyMaps to craft an interactive map where we will discuss specific examples of earthquakes and
reconstruction processes. From the 1977 Bucharest earthquake in Romania and the Communist-led
reconstruction of this city to recent fracking-induced quakes in Oklahoma and the absence of state
compensation and aid in this state, our collective map will launch our comparative analysis of
earthquakes. In Section 2 we will precisely analyze the origins of seismology with the 1755 Lisbon
earthquake and write a 5-page essay that addresses the science, literature and politics sparked by this
major disaster. As we will see, the architectural techniques and preventive science stemming from this
particular earthquake still frame our approach of quakes today. In Section 3 we will fully use the
anthropological lens to critically assess the Haitian post-earthquake situation in a 7-page essay. We will
meet and discuss with anthropologists, journalists and Haitian NGO actors in order to think about the
earthquake with a multifocal approach. The second half of this essay will focus on projects yielding
positive results in Haiti. The essays will go through peer review and multiple stages of revision and editing.
Over the semester, we will watch documentaries, read NGO reports, scientific assessments of
earthquakes and literature woven around the disaster/reconstruction binary in order to glean information
about prevention, analysis and post-earthquake relief. We will compare international cases by reading
scientific, literary and ethnographic analysis of disasters. Voltaire’s Candide, Laura Wagner’s Haiti is a
Sliding Land, Deborah Coen’s Earthquakes Observers: Disaster Science from Lisbon to Richter or Peter
Redfield’s Life in Crisis will serve as some as our empirically grounded readings that will allow us to explore
writing in multiple genres and disciplines.
Writing 101.30-101.73-101.76
Topic: WOMEN AND MEMOIR
Instructor: Leslie Maxwell
TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM, TuTh 4:40PM - 5:55PM, MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM
Memoirs, which are typically about a specific experience, moment, or part of a writer's life, require a
writer to reveal personal feelings and experiences. The deeply personal nature of memoir leads to
questions of how writers use memoir and how writers construct these experiences for a very public mode
of discourse. Of course, there’s more to memoir than the subject. Also important is the construction of
the author’s understanding of the experience, and, by extension, how the reader then finds meaning in
the author’s experience. In this course, we will read book-length memoirs and essay-length memoirs by
women, looking at ways in which writers use memoirs, as well as how writers shape meaning. We will
investigate what women write about when they write memoirs, and we will explore ways of writing and
how those ways of writing can generate meaning. We will also examine the ways in which race, ethnicity,
gender identity, sexuality, and more influence women's memoirs. In addition, we will consider challenges
and obstacles, both internal and external, that women face when writing about themselves.
We will explore our ideas through our own writing, including two formal essays and informal reflections
(on our class readings and on personal experiences) on a class wiki and in short pieces to share in class. At
the end of the semester, students will write their own memoir in a personal essay (10-12 pages). Though
our class is focused on memoirs written by women, students of all genders and gender identities are
welcome.
Writing 101.32-101.33
Topic: WRITING YOUTH: THE BILDUNGSROM
Instructor: Jed Cohen
WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM & WF 1:25PM - 2:40PM
It’s a truth universally—well, commonly, at least—acknowledged that every person has a novel in him or
her. The basis for this belief can be found in an experience shared by all human beings of mature age:
growing up. We spend our youth joyfully and sadly, ecstatically and languorously, making discoveries,
making mistakes—in other words, building a self. Aren’t the mortifying details of an awkward moment
years ago more present to us than what we had for breakfast? (Or maybe that’s just me…) There is of
course a scientific explanation for the persistence of these recollections—the malleability and receptivity
of the maturing brain, etc.—but there’s also a cultural one: We retain these flashes of our past because
they teach us how to be.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the triumphs and travails of growing up have long been the
subject of novelists’ art. In this class, we will explore the so-called bildungsroman (“novel of education,”
“novel of formation,” or, sometimes, “novel of socialization”). Some questions that will guide our
discussions are: What are the formal attributes or conventions of the bildungsroman? What kinds of
challenges does a bildungsheld (hero/protagonist of a bildungsroman) encounter? What narratological
or rhetorical techniques do bildungsroman authors employ to represent their heroes’ maturation? How
do authors negotiate their heroes’ psychological development with the imperatives of society? How does
the bildungsroman change across time and place? Is the bildungsroman still relevant today?
We will attempt to answer some of these questions not only through lively class discussion, but also—like
the artists and critics we’ll be reading—through writing. Five discrete writing assignments form the
backbone of the course and introduce several key moves of published academic writing, including close
reading, critical exposition, and critical application. The final writing project offers students an
opportunity to either research and compose a robust critical essay or author a creative work of their own.
Beginning with the ur-bildungsroman, Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795), the course will
work forward in time and expand its geographical reach, analyzing bildungsromane by French, Irish,
Antiguan, and American authors. The course culminates with an examination of the contemporary
bildungsroman.
Writing 101.35-101.61
Topic: SOCIAL INEQUALITY AND SPORTS
Instructor: Nathan Kalman-Lamb
MW 3:05PM - 4:20PM, MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM
Fair and Foul: Critical Perspectives on Social Inequality and Sports
Sport is perhaps the most popular form of culture in American society today. For many of us, it provides
an outlet for pleasure and relaxation, and can function as an escape from the rigors of everyday life. Yet,
although it is comforting to view sport simply as a form of apolitical recreation, this perspective fails to
acknowledge the ways in which sporting cultures persistently produce and reproduce forms of social
inequality. In this course, students will use critical, academic writing to explore the familiar realm of sport
from a new perspective. Students will thus simultaneously develop a new critical approach to sport and a
new critical approach to writing in the social sciences. Our exploration of sport and social inequality will
be guided by a series of questions. Are professional athletes playing or working? Does exploitation exist
in high performance sport? Is high performance sport contested on a level playing field? What forms of
gender identity are privileged in sporting cultures? Does sport promote racial equity and justice?
Ultimately, our exploration of sporting culture will prompt students to explore their capacities as cultural
critics capable of grappling with both popular and scholarly material. We will investigate how to think and
write critically about sport by engaging with a range of theoretical texts that examine how sport is
informed by structural forms of social inequality. These texts may include selections from Guy Debord’s
The Society of the Spectacle, Ben Carrington’s Race, Sport, and Politics, C. Richard King and Charles
Springwood’s Beyond the Cheers, Michele Wallace’s Dark Designs and Visual Culture, Debra Shogun’s The
Making of High Performance Athletes, Jean-Marie Brohm’s Sport: A Prison of Measured Time, Varda
Burstyn’s The Rites of Men, and others. Texts may also include narrative and documentary films and
media and pop cultural commentary.
In order to provide students with the skills required to engage in scholarly writing and debate, including
the ability to structure an argument, critique and reference the work of others, and engage directly with
primary source material in order to produce original research, the course will be structured in a manner
that affords significant portions of classroom time to discussion of theoretical scholarly texts, instruction
on academic writing protocols and strategies, and peer-workshopping of student writing. Since this course
will use critical writing as a way to unpack social inequality in sporting culture, students will be expected
to contribute a variety of written assignments over the course of the term. During the first half of the
course, as a form of primary critical engagement with our texts, each student will be expected to
contribute 1-2 page responses on each week’s primary text. The course will also include two longer
written assignments: an 8-10 page research paper and a 6-8 page critical analysis paper.
Writing 101.36-101.59
Topic: GARBAGE POLITICS
Instructor: Michael Dimpfl
MW 6:15PM - 7:30PM & MW 4:40PM - 5:55PM
Garbage Politics: Theories and Cultures of Waste in Everyday Life
It’s no secret that human beings make a lot of garbage. Whether people are “trashing the planet” or
“reducing, reusing, and recycling,” trash occupies a considerable amount of cultural and physical space.
But, what is trash? How is it organized or categorized as an object of concern for individuals, activists,
municipal government, or society at large? To take an emblematic example, why is it that in certain spaces,
people hear or learn about the metric tons of trash being produced every minute, and yet see so little of
it?
We will develop a theoretical framework for categorizing waste, trace its historical origins, and explore
why it is an essential and overlooked component of everyday life. How does waste produce and maintain
boundaries between things (and people)? How does waste inform ideas about what belongs—and why—
and what must be excluded? Furthermore, what can recent and historical thinking about waste tell us
about how to be better writers? What specific lessons does an analysis of waste offer in terms of
strengthening writing practice, particularly in the social sciences?
Readings will include Rose George’s The Big Necessity, Mike Davis’ City of Slums, Dominique Laporte’s
History of Shit, Donald Reid’s Paris Sewers and Sewerman, Matthew Gandy’s Concrete and Clay, and
Edward Burtynsky’s film Manufactured Landscapes. A major focus will be on the role of building and
responding to draft material – the “waste” of early writing that is not simply cast-off effort, but a critical
building block necessary to developing an effective and powerful writing voice. A series of sequential
assignments – in-class response writing, short out-of-class writing assignments, annotated bibliographies,
and structured drafts – will build to a final research paper on a waste-related topic of your choosing.
Reading in this course will do two things: focus understanding of the mobility of waste as a material thing
and an important idea and guide you to a better understanding of the rigors of writing in the social
sciences. We will practice effective citation habits, the selection of powerful quotes, work on developing
thesis statements and effective argumentation, and address issues of style and flow. Working with your
peers, you will do a series of low-stakes in- and out-of-class writing assignments to develop skills that will
lead to the selection of a research topic and engagement with scholarly literature related to that topic. In
addition, you will have an opportunity to hone peer reviewing, outlining and editing skills leading into a
formal research paper. Writing is difficult, requires practice, and is best developed in an environment of
generous critique. The challenge of this course will be to develop an ability to engage with what works in
each other’s writing while at the same time improving skills in service of developing strong writing habits.
Writing 101.39-101.62-101.63
Topic: CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL PHIL
Instructor: Matthew Whitt
TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM, WF 1:25PM - 2:40PM, WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Contemporary Political Philosophy: What is Justice Today?
Political philosophy asks tough questions about the key terms that politicians—and the rest of us—throw
around in everyday political discourse: What is justice? How do we achieve freedom? What should be the
limits of governmental power? Why is equality important, and what are fundamental liberties anyway?
But when we think of political philosophy, many of us think of old dead men, like Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau,
and Marx. Does anyone still do this stuff today? Does it matter?
Yes, and yes! In this class, we will examine how today’s philosophers approach issues of justice, freedom,
power, and equality. But instead of studying their theories for their own sake, we will use academic writing
to connect them to movements such as libertarianism, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter. In our
writing, we will also draw on contemporary political philosophy to clarify our own understandings of
freedom, equality, and justice.
Writing is an especially deft tool for not only studying, but also doing, philosophy. Effective writing
demands that we clarify our thoughts, evaluate our commitments, and genuinely consider opposing
views. In the first unit of the course, students will write brief blog posts that connect the writings of
political philosophers to contemporary social and political issues. In the second unit, students will draft,
critique, and revise a 4-6-page essay that builds on their blog posts. This will provide students with a solid
foundation of academic writing skills. In the final unit of the course, students will pursue independent
research and write a final 8-10-page seminar paper that brings contemporary philosophy to bear on a
pressing issue, like migration, mass incarceration, or climate change. A series of workshops, peer review,
and revisions will ensure that final papers are suitable for publication in Deliberations or another public
forum.
Writing 101.40
Topic: THE RISE AND FALL OF JIM CROW
Instructor: Peter Pihos
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM
“The Jim Crow era,” historian Leslie Brown argues, “was not just a somnolent interval between
emancipation and the civil rights movement.” The premise of the course is that the epoch of racial
segregation in the South (roughly the 1890s to the 1960s) was a period of dynamic historical change. To
examine these questions, we will meet in the Rubenstein Library and much of our work will primarily upon
the extraordinary collections of manuscript sources in Duke’s John Hope Franklin Center for African and
African American History and Culture. Over the semester, we will combine readings of selections from
classic African-American texts (such as W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk, Booker T. Washington’s
Up From Slavery, and Ida B. Wells’s Southern Horrors) and contemporary historical writing, with a close
examination of unique materials, including photos, personal papers, letters, speeches, institutional
records, ephemera, and oral histories. The class will present a rare opportunity for first-years to have a
first-hand encounter with the real materials of history.
Students will undertake a variety of formal and informal writing projects to investigate some of the most
important scholarly questions concerning the segregated South. Our three major projects will pair the
exploration of a particular topic with practice exercising a specific set of skills. In the first project, students
will use “close readings” of primary sources to explore the role of violence in formalizing and sustaining
the system of white domination. In the second, we will examine the way that different types of evidence
have been used to support particular positions in a scholarly conversation about the nature of black
political life in the segregated South. Finally, the class will think about how to write for different audiences
in investigating how the color line shaped black institutional life. By the end of the semester, students will
have confidence in reading different types of texts and writing for various purposes and audiences, as well
as learning how to formulate an intellectual inquiry.
Writing 101.41-42
Topic: WHAT THE NEW DEAL DID
Instructor: Peter Pihos
TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM & TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM
During the years between 1932 and 1940, liberal reformers created the architecture of the modern
American state. “Into the years of the New Deal,” argues historian David Kennedy, “was crowded more
social and institutional change than in virtually any other comparable compass of time in the nation’s
past.” Historians continue to dispute the meaning of those years and their legacy. Was there one or many
New Deal(s)? Who “made” the New Deal, the working class or Washington politicians? Was it a
conservative revolution? How did it reshape the terrain of struggle for racial equality in America? Should
we understand the New Deal state, and the society and polity it engendered, as the norm or as an
aberration? This class will use the New Deal in order to think about the America that it created.
In this class, we will examine three facets of the New Deal through a series of writing projects. We will
begin by reading a series of key Supreme Court cases that brought New Deal programs into harmony with
federal constitutional law. During this portion of the class students will gain familiarity with a specific type
of source—appellate opinions—and will explore various approaches to interpreting them. Our writing will
focus on developing close reading skills and investigating how the courts arrived at a new understanding
of constitutional principles.
The second section of the course will focus on race in the New Deal. It is often seen as a key moment for
civil rights, and it was. At the same time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s congressional coalition consisted of
an odd mix of urban racial liberals and southern racial conservatives. Our writing will focus on
understanding the various interpretations that historians have put forth of the relationship between the
New Deal and racial inequality.
The final section of the course will address how the New Deal transformed—and failed to transform—
American political economy. By political economy, I mean the way in which the state shapes economic
activity. Here we will explore the legacy of the New Deal during the Golden Age of American economic
growth in the post-World War II period. High levels of unionization, high taxes, and record profits remade
American society and politics. It iPublishs this aspect of the New Deal that shaped many of the most
important debates in American politics since the early 1970s. We will explore this legacy through
collaborative projects of your own design, in which teams of students will build a simple website dedicated
to a particular aspects of the New Deal’s legacy.
By the end of the semester, students will have confidence in reading different types of texts and writing
for various purposes and audiences, as well as learning how to formulate an intellectual inquiry.
Writing 101.43-101.44-101.45
Topic: STUDENTS AS ACTIVISTS
Instructor: Amanda Pullum
TuTh 8:30AM - 9:45AM, TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM, TuTh 1:25PM - 2:40PM
Some of the most influential social movements in the United States have been led, entirely or in a large
part, by students. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), for example, organized lunch
counter sit-ins and “Freedom Rides” during the civil rights movement. A few years later, students on
campuses throughout the United States were some of the most vocal opponents of the Vietnam War. In
the late 1990s, students at Duke were among the founders of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS),
which advocates for better working conditions for workers who produce collegiate apparel. Today, young
people continue to play critical and visible roles in modern social movements, such as Occupy and Black
Lives Matter. Studying student and youth activism, therefore, is one way we can understand when and
how activists bring about social change. In this course, we will draw upon sociological literature, as well
as your own experiences. However, this course does not require any previous knowledge about social
movements or involvement in activism.
We will examine research on historical and modern student activism, as well as sociological theories of
social movements. You will complete daily in-class short writing assignments, as well as three major
projects. For each major project, we’ll engage in drafting, peer workshopping, revision, and editing.
In your first major project, you will engage with an academic “conversation” through an analytical essay
that examines why individuals become activists. Using multiple academic articles that offer different
perspectives on this question, you’ll practice creating a strong thesis statement and developing your own
clear, logical argument.
Your second major project will give you an opportunity to explore the range of student activism here at
Duke, and to practice ethnographic, “participant observation” research techniques. After we discuss
techniques for conducting ethnographic research, you’ll choose at least two campus events at which you
can observe student-led activism. While attending these events, you will take notes on your experience,
and you’ll analyze this data to write an essay explaining the relevance of your findings to previous
literature.
Finally, your third major project will be an original research proposal on a topic relevant to student
activism. You will create a sociological research question, find and analyze relevant academic literature,
and determine the best research method for answering your question.
Writing 101.47-48
Topic: MEMORY & TRAUMA-LAT AME FILM
Instructor Sandra Sotelo-Miller
MW 8:30AM - 9:45AM & MW 11:45AM - 1:00PM
Memory and Trauma in Latin American Cinema
This course explores the interconnections between memory, trauma, and Latin American and Caribbean
cinema. Beginning in the 1960’s we focus on events throughout Latin America and the Caribbean—Mexico
in 1968, the ‘Dirty War’ in Argentina, the Dominican Republic under Trujillo, Chile under Pinochet—where
criminal politics have made people “disappear” while traumatizing populations. The main questions this
course will address are: What is the role of cinema in the construction or deconstruction of memory and
trauma? What is the role of cinema in the representation and understanding of contemporary criminal
violence against citizens? How does cinema address testimony and bear witness to human trauma?
As students analyze the intersection of cinema, trauma, and memory in Latin America, they watch and
respond, in writing, to artists considering these same questions. The goal of this course is to prepare
students to actively engage with the material through critical discourse, both in writing and orally. In
tandem to watching films, students will read academic essays pertaining to the themes addressed in the
films and write critical analyses of these works. These analyses will take several forms and lengths:
response with analysis, a film review, and a longer analysis of a movie not seen in class but focused around
the themes presented in class. This analysis will be done through SCALAR, a multi-media, digital platform.
Students will spend the final days of class participating in a class read around, reading each essay and
providing feedback and suggestions.
Writing 101.49-101.50, 101.70
Topic: INTL MIGRATION IN N. AMERICA
Instructor: Janine Rose
MW 8:30AM - 9:45AM, MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM, MW 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Approximately 180 million individuals, or 3% of the world’s population, reside in places that are outside
their country of birth. The United States and Canada are among the most important destination countries
with cities such as New York and Toronto being major places of settlement. Additionally, the migration of
international populations, particularly racialized groups, has had significant social, economic and political
impacts on the countries of origin and destination. In this course, you will focus on how geography and
identity shape the migration process and the experiences of immigrants at their destination. Using
information derived from text and film, you will write about the circumstances influencing the nature of
international migration as well the experiences of immigrants who are of diverse racial and ethnic
backgrounds.
This course is also a useful introduction to how human geographers and other social scientists have
written about and broadened the field of migration studies. You will also encounter the following themes
in the course: theories explaining the causes of migration; the global interconnections between
immigrants and their countries of birth; and issues that influence the integration of immigrants in the USA
and Canada. Among the questions that will drive our inquiry in this course are: Why do individuals choose
to migrate to particular destinations? Where do immigrants settle and why? How do localities differ in
how they treat immigrants? How do race, class and gender intersect to shape the migration experience?
How does migration impact the country of origin and destination?
To better understand the implications of migration for everyday life in North America, you will write
weekly reflections (minimum of 3 double spaced pages). You will use these reflections to explore your
own ideas, conceptions and misconceptions about immigrants and the immigration process. These critical
reflections should address gaps and complexities in the readings and examine connections between the
course material and your own personal experiences or observations. Further, these weekly papers will
also allow you to practice and develop a repertoire of writing skills that will prove useful for the final
writing project.
For the final writing assignment, you will be asked to use what you have learned about the experiences of
immigrants, other individuals implicated in the migration process, and the academic literature to write a
research paper that analyzes the impact of international migration on a city of your choice. This writing
assignment will allow you to apply your understanding of writing conventions in the social sciences as well
as your knowledge of contemporary debates to explain how immigration is resulting in changes to the
social and geographical landscape of many North American cities and communities. This exercise will
involve identifying factors that make the immigration experience unique for immigrants in particular
locations and interpreting reasons for these differences.
Associated with the final project is an essay outline that you will create and revise prior to submitting the
final writing assignment. This outline will allow you to develop and better articulate your ideas before
submitting a full draft of your research paper. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to further
develop your ideas and arguments through workshops dedicated to essay development. During the
workshops, you will provide and receive feedback from classmates on the relevance of evidence, clarity
and effectiveness of the thesis statement, topic sentences, and preliminary paragraphs presented in the
outline. You will improve your skills as a writer through the practice of revising and editing the final
research essay based on critiques received during the peer review workshops.
Writing 101.51
Topic: IMAGINING HUMAN RIGHTS
Instructor: Nora Nunn
TuTh 4:40PM - 5:55PM
“Human rights” is an inherently slippery concept. As philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out in The
Origins of Totalitarianism, the term is riddled with contradictions and perplexities. So what exactly are
human rights, and how do words and visual texts shape our understanding of the concept? More
importantly, can language compel people to act on behalf on human rights—or, more dangerously, to
violate them? Can a single tweet—let alone an entire novel—really make a difference? Who are the
heroes and who are the victims in these narratives? Whose voices are privileged and whose are silenced?
How do we as scholars write about human rights in an academic voice? With such questions in mind, this
class will examine the concept of human rights as constructed in written texts—legal documents,
newspaper articles, memoirs, and literature—as well as in visual cultures—art exhibits, photographs, and
film. Throughout it all, we will focus on the skill of writing as students channel their analytic voices from
class discussion to the written page and back again.
This course issues each student an invitation to engage in the art of critical analysis and the craft of
persuasive written expression. Activities will emphasize the mechanics of a well-honed argument: active
engagement with others’ work, discipline-specific conventions, and originality of ideas. Each student will
complete three assignments: (1) an annotated bibliography on a human rights-related topic, (2) a research
paper that builds on the bibliography by critically examining the depiction of human rights in a chosen
written or visual text, and (3) an op-ed based on the research project that concisely presents a human
rights-related argument with the option of submitting the work for publication. Students are strongly
encouraged to mine the resources of the Duke Rubenstein Library’s human rights archive, which the class
will visit during the semester. Along the way, smaller and shorter assignments such as in-class writing and
reflection papers will kickstart the writing process; peer-editing and workshopping activities will provide
feedback and facilitate editing and revision. The class aims to impart a sustainable skill-set by providing
each writer with the essential tools of the trade: researching, workshopping, revising, and editing. Ideally,
this writer’s toolkit will empower students to successfully express their own ideas throughout their four
years at Duke and beyond.
Writing 101.52-101.53
Topic: ETHNOFUTURISMS
Instructor: Susan Thananopavarn
WF 8:30AM - 9:45AM & WF 11:45AM - 1:00PM
Ethnofuturism: Writing the Future of Race
Have we arrived at a post-racial future? Scholars, politicians, and visionaries of the twentieth century
postulated a future in which race and gender distinctions would be eliminated through technology.
Mainstream science fiction also tends to envision a color-blind future. Yet not all speculative fiction elides
questions of race. Afrofuturism is a movement in literature, music, art, and film that has developed
alternative visions of the future critiquing concepts of race and ethnicity from the perspective of the
African diaspora. More recently, other authors have articulated alternative futurisms including Latino,
indigenous, and Asian American futurisms in novels, stories, music, films, and the visual arts.
This course will examine conceptions and representations of race and ethnicity in speculative fiction. We
will read fiction by authors such as Octavia Butler, Ruth Ozeki, and Junot Diaz. We will also watch films
and examine literary criticism to ask what “ethnofuturism” can reveal about race and ethnicity in the
twenty-first century. Writing tasks will require you to engage with the work of others and articulate a
position as a literary and cultural critic. Assignments for the class include weekly short reaction papers, a
3-4 page review of a book or film of your choice, and a 7-9 page final conference paper on one of the texts
for the class.
Writing 101.54
Topic: LAW & LITERATURE
Instructor: Emma Graner
WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM
“Law and Literature” as a field of inquiry first came into vogue in the 1970s, and it has since evolved to
include a diverse collection of interdisciplinary investigations. At its core, the Law and Literature
movement asks, “What can literature teach us about the law, and what can the law teach us about
literature?” Within these broad queries lurk questions about the nature of justice, punishment, human
behavior and motivation, institutional structures, cultural norms, individual agency and responsibility,
logic and emotion, rhetoric, and disciplinary methodology. In this course, we will examine the history of
the movement and consider its future, read key texts that confront the relationship between law and
literature, and explore the productive and limiting aspects of positing law and literature as opposing or
complementary forces.
This theme will serve to organize and direct the primary focus of this course: writing with purpose. We
will proceed along two trajectories. First, we will read texts that engage a variety of aims, audiences,
styles, and subjects in order to examine what makes them effective or ineffective for their purposes.
These texts will include traditionally literary ones like short novels and poetry as well as non-literary
narratives, including historical and contemporary court opinions, political documents, and visual media
and advertisements. All of them—literary, legal, and otherwise—will deepen our understanding of how
the discourses of law and literature interact to support or contest the concept of liberal subjectivity on
which modern legal theory is based. Second, we will practice academic writing in several genres. Students
will complete three major writing assignments: a short (3-4 page) close reading of a course text; a longer
(4-5 page) paper involving engagement with the ideas of other scholars; and a final (7-9 page) research
paper addressing one of the major themes of the course on a set of issues or texts of the student’s
choosing. For each paper, students will have an opportunity to learn and practice techniques for
generating ideas, formulating original and persuasive theses, locating sources, creating outlines and
abstracts, drafting, peer-editing, and revising. Students should expect to be writing every week and
should approach this course as a collaborative, experimental, supportive, and rigorous space for learning
how to write with purpose.
Writing 101.56
Topic: WRITING & POWER/WR. AS POWER
Instructor: Jacqueline Kellish
WF 4:40PM - 5:55PM
In this class, we will consider how certain authors and forms of writing are inherently privileged in history
and society, and how other voices—such as those of minorities, women, and economically disadvantaged
peoples—are ignored or obscured. To do so, we will read two canonical novels from the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries (Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë). We will
compare these with two late twentieth-century novels (Foe by J.M. Coetzee and Wide Sargasso Sea by
Jean Rhys) that use DeFoe and Brontë’s premises and characters to tell an alternative story and challenge
traditional power relations. We will also look at contemporary media sources in order to question how
these phenomena persist, evolve, and permeate our everyday lives. How do such institutions—ranging
from mainstream publications such as the New York Times to blogs, zines, and Twitter—tell explicit and
implicit stories about how power is circulated in society? How can writing itself be a form of aggression,
violence, or oppression? On the other hand, how is writing used to undermine structures of authority and
what are the specific challenges of doing so from a non-privileged social position?
In other words, this class will push us to consider the context in which various forms of writing are
produced and to see them as inherently involved in forms of social struggle and power politics. Power is
never absent from writing, which should encourage us to think carefully about everything we read. Whose
agendas do various pieces of writing advance? What is the effect when writers imagine and address a
specific type of audience, including some and excluding others? How do writings of protest or revolution
earn authority even while challenging established forms of authority? How is writing received differently
based on the known gender, race, or social status of the author or narrator? Moreover, in the current age
of instant online access and communication, we will see how the transmission, interpretation, and
“sharing” of the written word can foster radical societal upheaval.
Assignments will include short reflections (250 words) on the techniques, shortcomings, and stakes of
various writerly endeavors that we examine in our readings. These will be posted to Sakai every other
week and will inform our seminar discussions. Students will write an initial scholarly paper (3-5 pages)
based on a comparative analysis of one theme in our first two novels. Together, we will prepare for this
by discussing how to articulate a critical argument and how to cite academic sources. The main project
for the class will be a final 5-7 page project involving an annotated bibliography, and three preliminary
drafts edited using peer review and instructor feedback. This project, which will consider how power is
made manifest and/or challenged through various forms of writing, may be a research-based critical
literary analysis or an equally well-researched work of long-form journalism on an approved topic.
Writing 101.58
Topic: THE WELL-WRITTEN DETECTIVE
Instructor: Joshua Striker
TuTh 4:40PM - 5:55PM
How good a detective are you? In this course you will learn to write essays as accounts of intellectual
mysteries being solved, mysteries about four classic detective novels, about their form, their characters,
their authors, the milieux they were written in—you name it. The novels are Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin
Man, A Murder is Announced, by Agatha Christie, Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, and Cotton
Comes to Harlem, by Chester Himes. Reading about detectives should help you think of your own writing
as a kind of detective work, a way of finding a hidden truth about a piece of literature. You are not in this
alone. There will be in-class workshops with your classmates and one-on-one meetings with me.
You will be asked to respond to each of the novels listed above with an essay 250 to 500 words long.
One of these essays will then be lengthened to 1250 words and the analysis in it sharpened and deepened.
Finally, you will write 2000-2500 words comparing The Thin Man, A Murder is Announced, Strangers on a
Train, or Cotton Comes to Harlem, to a piece of writing or filmmaking of your choosing. This could be a
movie, an episode of a TV show, a story, an article in a newspaper or magazine. When you turn in this last
long essay it will be clear to both of us that you have become a better reader and writer—in other words,
a better intellectual detective.
Writing 101.60 &101.74
Topic: DECODING DISNEY
Instructor: Lisa Andres
MW 8:30AM - 9:45AM & MW 10:05AM - 11:20AM
“Breaking the Disney Spell: Decoding Disney’s Ideological Construction of Evil & Villainy”
“I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”
--Bad-Anon Motto, Wreck-It Ralph
TENTATIVE Fall 2016 FOCUS: This semester, we will be looking specifically at Disney (both the company
and the films) and its reputation as and construction of “evil” and “the villain.”
**Please note: in order to be successful in this section of WR101, students are expected to (1) complete
all writing assignments on time; (2) actually watch Disney films (and not just work from memory!); (3)
complete all assigned readings and form opinions/responses to them; and finally (4) actively participate
in class discussion. This class works best when students freely and respectfully exchange ideas.
While a prior knowledge of or interest in Disney films or the company is by no means required, it is strongly
recommended. It is, after all, often easier to write about and study things you’re interested in.
--Questions for discussion might include: Why do people “hate” Disney? What is their antipathy towards
Walt Disney? How was the discord heightened when CEO Michael Eisner came to power? How What role
do the theme parks play?
How does Disney construct evil/villainy in their films – what does it mean to be a “Disney villain”? How
has the concept of the Disney Villain evolved/changed over time? How is a modern Disney villain different
from a “classic” Disney villain? (Is there even such a thing?) How do Pixar villains compare/differ? What
does the recent interest in/fascination with Disney villains mean for the company? (In terms of theme
park events (e.g. Club Villain at Hollywood Studios), merchandising, and films (e.g. Maleficent).)
--Films Tentatively Include: Cinderella (1950); Sleeping Beauty (1959); The Jungle Book (1967); Beauty and
the Beast (1991); Aladdin (1994); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996); Wall-E (2008); Wreck-It-Ralph
(2012); Frozen (2013)
--Required Texts:
(1) They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (3rd edition) – edited by Gerald Graff and
Cathy Birkenstein
(2) Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World by Carl Hiassen
PAST COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes believes “Walt Disney cast a spell on the fairy tale,” claiming that, for most
American children and adults, “their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will
have emanated from a Disney film, book, or artifact.” While originally printed in 1995, Zipes’s claim about
the power of Disney still rings true: today, the Walt Disney Company is a multi-billion dollar empire, one
which has evolved far beyond the fledgling cartoon studio Walt and Roy Disney founded in 1923. But just
what exactly is the Disney empire? How far does its reach extend and how powerful is it? And, perhaps
most importantly for this course, what are the values and messages that comprise the company’s
ideology? How does the Walt Disney Company represent concepts such as romance, gender, race, history,
and family? For example, why are Disney’s heroines primarily young and beautiful whereas the villains are
older and less attractive? Why do Disney tales end with a heterosexual marriage? Does Disney accurately
portray the story of historical figures such as Pocahontas and Mulan or are their stories twisted to fit
Disney’s formulaic fairy-tale plot?
In this course, we will seek to explore answers to these questions. To do this, we will focus primarily on
those canonical animated films which were created within specific cultural and historical contexts. (In our
discussions, however, we will also reference other Disney/Pixar films, the Disney theme parks, Disney’s
extensive consumer products, as well as Disney’s corporate assets such as ABC and ESPN, all of which
might serve as potential research topics.) We will also read a selection of scholarly articles and book
chapters from critics such as Zipes who will offer us different theoretical approaches to the genre.
Writing 101.64-101.65
Topic: THE ECOLOGY OF DISEASE
Instructor: Staff (Miranda Welsh)
WF 3:05PM - 4:20PM & WF 4:40PM - 5:55PM
Why are some diseases lethal while others are barely noticeable? Why do some cause epidemics while
others are rare? Long considered the realm of biology, the answers to these questions are increasingly
interdisciplinary. Disease can be driven by biological, social, geographic, and historical factors, and the
ecological approach to studying disease considers these factors simultaneously. In this course, we will use
the topic of disease ecology to develop skills in interdisciplinary composition. Diseases may be biological
in nature, but all disciplines contribute to an understanding of their ecology. As such, I encourage all
students to consider this course. In addition, specific essay topics are largely student-selected, and we will
be working to develop writing and collaborative skills that transfer and translate across disciplines.
We will begin our exploration of disease ecology by recording and sharing some of our own experiences
with disease, and we will use a series of guided readings to: 1) develop a concept map to guide our future
work, and 2) develop skills in summary. Each guided reading will exemplify the effects of biology (e.g.,
diet, the microbiome), society (e.g., cultural norms and beliefs, public policy), geography (e.g., settlement
patterns, climate), or history (e.g., colonialism, migration) on disease. You will keep a journal of short
responses to all readings and choose two readings to summarize independently (1 page each). Next, we
will work to make our summaries more analytical by considering the language and context of several
readings, and you will compose a written analysis of one of them (2 pages). We will then work in small
groups to compare, contrast, and synthesize across a pair of readings, and you will organize your
comparisons into a short paper (2-3 pages).
In the second section of the course, we will work incrementally to produce an essay that presents and
defends an argument (5-7 pages). Based on your reading thus far, you will identify a topic of interest and
four potential sources. You will work to develop an argument by responding to your sources (e.g., “What
do you agree with or feel conviction about?”, “What do you disagree with or feel skeptical about?”,
“Why”), and we will use in-class discussion to refine and organize our arguments. Throughout the course,
we will use guided workshops and small-group discussion to revise our products, and you will be expected
to consider and incorporate the feedback of your peers before submitting a final product. In closing, we
will discuss writing for diverse audiences. You will practice this skill by re-working the content of your
argument essay for either a general audience (e.g., as a blog post or news brief) or a younger audience
(e.g. as a children’s book or comic), and we will solicit feedback from members of our community.
Writing 101.66-101.67-101.68
Topic: ART AT THE EDGE OF TRADITION
Instructor: David Font
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM, TuTh 11:45AM - 1:00PM, TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM
How have Indonesian and South Asian music infused Euro-American music since the late 19th century?
How can Cubist paintings be understood as direct descendants of African masks? How and why do
traditional cultural forms continually nourish modern avant garde art? What can we learn from tracing
the influence of Indonesian gamelan music from Claude Debussy to ambient electronic music? Conversely,
how do contemporary experimental approaches nourish quintessentially “traditional” or “classical”
cultural forms? As savvy thinkers and writers, how can we describe the richness and complexity of
expressive culture using text and ubiquitous audiovisual technologies? Through case studies grounded in
historical and critical analyses, we will look for patterns in the flow of culture at the edge of traditions.
In this course, we will explore the confluence of cultural tradition, avant garde art, and anthropology. In
many ways, traditions are intrinsically conservative efforts that maintain continuity: forms of music, visual
art, and dance often serve as emblems of identity (national, ethnic, local, etc.) that remain (relatively)
constant over time. By contrast, avant garde approaches to culture typically seek novel, creative breaks
with previous models and practices. A similar contrast can be discerned between notions of folk and fine
art: the former is ancient and down-to-earth, while the latter is timeless and elevated. In fact,
relationships between these categories of culture are much more complex, and distinctions between
tradition and art are profoundly arbitrary and fluid. Yet what distinguished One from the Other so
persistently?
In the first stage of our work, we will familiarize ourselves with theoretical tools and historical contexts,
reading and annotating foundational articles and interviews. Subsequently, our seminar will consist of a
collaborative research project in which each student will develop a theme and case study analyzing a
specific historical instance of “art at the edge of tradition.” Final projects will consist of brief (2,000–4,000
words), multimedia-rich essays that offer informative, historical, and critical analyses that will be
published in a course blog.
Writing 101.72
Topic: STUDIES IN MATERIAL CULTURE
Instructor: Christina Rudosky
TuTh 11:45AM - 1:00PM
Through the Lens of Objects: Studies in Material Culture
The French Sociologist and Surrealist poet, Roger Caillois, once said that said that an “unfathomable
graphic madness” was etched onto rocks and that in one tiny stone we could read “a whole world” where
“space and time was condensed.” Caillois’ fascination with what he called the “writing of stones,” serves
as a jumping off point for an investigation into how different objects—natural or man made— have a life
of their own, and thus salient stories to tell. In this class, we will take up debate with the field of material
culture that has emerged in the last two decades that seeks to unravel the notion of an anthropocentric
world by considering objects as agents. We will explore texts from a number of authors that are
anthropologists, archeologists, art historians, ecologists, political scientists, poets, philosophers and
literary critics such as Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Alfred Gell, W.J.T. Mitchell, Bill Brown and Francis
Ponge. Assignments in this class will consist of two “object study” essays of your choice, an in-class
presentation and one final research paper which will focus on an aspect of material culture in your
discipline of study. We will work on drafting, reviewing and revising this paper with our peers over the
course of the semester.
Updated- 8/24/16